INDUSTRY INSIGHTS

By John Kmitta

The Sports Turf Managers Association ( STMA ) 2020 Founders Awards winners were recognized for their contributions to STMA and to the profession . SportsField Management recently spoke with the 2020 honorees about the challenges of the past year and sports field management amid a pandemic .

Harry C . Gill Award Winner Abby McNeal , CSFM , CPRP , City and County of Denver Parks , said the past year was especially challenging being in parks and recreation , because , as essential personnel , her department took on more duties — all while being short staffed .

“ As the year went on and the staff got thinner and thinner , my stress level went all over the place ,” said McNeal . A big part of that stress was concern over her 32 employees , who she views as family .

“ It was my job to make sure they could come to work safely ,” she said . “ It was an ever-evolving continuous change of what ’ s next to screen people to get them here safely .”

Marcus Dean , CSFM , Advanced Turf Solutions , winner of the Dick Ericson Award , said one of the biggest challenges industrywide has been budget constraints .

“ I have not spoken to one person who has told me that their budget was not cut in some way , shape , form or fashion ,” said Dean . “ From the sports field manager ’ s side of things , it ’ s going to be figuring out how to create the same results as they ’ ve done in the past but with reduced budgets .”

Dean added that budget constraints are going to continue to be especially challenging for the parks and rec and high school levels .

“ Here in Kentucky , the high school athletic programs rely so much on the gate money from high school football games and basketball games and concession stands ,” said Dean . “ If , in years past , they averaged 5,000 or 6,000 fans on a Friday night for a gate , they were limited to 450 here this year . So that is a significant reduction in income .”

Dean added that he thinks it will be two or three years – maybe longer – before the industry fiscally rebounds from the challenges of the past year .

McNeal said her previous experience with event management helped her prepare the best she could for this year and the unknowns to come .

“ You don ’ t make plans , you make scenarios ,” said McNeal . “ That ’ s pretty much what every day is … it ’ s ‘ What ’ s next ?’ You can ’ t be prepared for the unknown .”

William H . Daniel Award Winner Bradley Jakubowski , instructor of plant sciences at Penn State , faced a different set of challenges on the academic side .

“ To say that it ’ s a bizarre experience is an understatement ,” said Jakubowski . “ However , it gave me an opportunity to really learn how to take older or more traditional information and put it into a new context .”

He added that he was able to find different ways to reach people .

— Abby McNeal , CSFM

38 SportsField Management | March 2021 sportsfieldmanagementonline . com